淺析中美家庭教育差異

摘 要 中國和美國在國際社會中占有重要地位，對國際社會的發展有重要的影響，而且也受到全球的關注。國際社會的發展很大程度上離不開教育的發展。因此，什么是教育？所謂教育就是培養新一代適應和融入社會的全過程，也是傳承和發展人類經驗的主要環節。眾所周知，不同的地區和文化有不同的教育制度。本文，作者從不同的方面分析了中美家庭教育的特點，并著重提出了產生這種差異的種種原因。通過對比，本文也提出了一些改革中國家庭教育的建議。

關鍵詞 特點 期望 歷史背景 人文教育 以學生為中心的教育

中圖分類號：G78 文獻標識碼：A

1 Introduction

In contemporary world， it is generally believed that the personal quality of talents is critical amid international competition. International competition is actually the competition of intelligence and talents， which needs education to boost. Therefore， education plays a dominant role in developing individuals' quality. Children are the hope of a nation. Therefore， family education is the elementary education for children. Chinese family education and American education have their own strong points. Some educational practices in the USA can provide references for Chinese educational reform， which intends to to cultivate students to possess the comprehensive quality including a good moral character， a clear legal awareness， civilized behaviors， a perfect outlook of the world and values and so on.

2 The comparison of family education between China and America

2.1 The features of family education in China

In China， there is an idiom which is “望子成龍”. It means that the parents hope their children can have a bright future whether they are happy or not. Chinese parents pay more attention to their children’s studies. They think that their children who were in very young cannot lose in the starting line. Thus， most children are arranged with assorted extracurricular classes. Take a famous story as an example. Cai MeiEr， known as \"Tiger Mom\"， is a Chinese-American professor in Yale University. She sets ten family severe rules to educate her two daughters such as taking A in every exam， not be permitted to join any parties， not be allowed to watch TV or play computer games and so on. As a consequence， her daughters are admitted into famous universities in America. Her style of disciplining two daughters has aroused heated discussion among the United States. It is quite clear that most of parents always have an image of authority so that their status is higher than their children at home. Hence， the education's goal is for earning their living. Nevertheless， they ignore their children’s ability of innovation and imagination. It turns out that parents will kill the talents of the children.

2.2 The characteristics of family education in America

Compared with Chinese family education， in American family， equality comes first. Parents can make friends with their children and communicate in harmony. Parents and children are able to respect each other. Children have their own rights to speak and voice their opinions on family affairs. Besides， American parents emphasize more to train their children’s ability of independence once they are born. Hence， they hold a relax attitude to their children’s creativity. They do not demand their children to get high marks in exams. They expect their children can explore their potential all alone. Even if children face some difficulties， they would not blame them. Instead， they will help their children find the problems gradually and correct them altogether. For instance， the children who demolish an alarm clock in American families will not be blamed. Sometimes， parents tend to work with their children to teach them how to repair the clock. They even encourage the children to demolish the clock again and reinstall it. But， if the same things happen in Chinese families， parents often scold the children seriously and let them imitate the original one to reinstall the clock. The children’s creativity is usually ruined by their parents in the early age. As a matter of fact， foreign education is not the preparation for earning their living， but for survival. American parents pay more attention to children’s social skills than to marks. After graduation form university， every child can keep pace with the modern society.

3 The causes of distinctions in Chinese education and American education

3.1 The different history backgrounds

China has a long history which could be traced back to 5000 years ago. The historical background of education is derived from the teachings of Confucius. In ancient， the children were forced to do rote learning and memorize Four Books and Five Classics. Thus， Chinese people are educated to be obedient and to be lack of an environment to accept new ideas. By contrast， America， is known as an emigrant country--the first from Asia， and the second from Europe and Africa. It is like a melting pot with multiple cultures. As time goes， affected by wide variety of cultures and values， Americans can accept new thoughts and cultures quickly and are educated to be enlightened.

3.2 The different social situations

The United States is a developed country and has a booming economy. So there are many opportunities for Americans to look for jobs. In the parents' opinions， if children can base themselves on the society， no matter what their jobs are， they can get others' respect because they think if working hard， even a cowboy can be president. By contrast， China is a developing country. It is also a society of diplomas. One person may study hard so as to get the valuable certificates in his whole life. As a result， they may spend one or two years applying for a job. Therefore， Chinese people have much pressure of living.

4 Methods to improve Chinese family education

Individuals’ comprehensive capacity becomes more and more important as the development of the country. Nowadays， the situation of crimes committed by undergraduates becomes increasingly serious in China. They have high talents but low human quality. Therefore， \"talent\" education should be turned into \"human\" education. For example， the Australia-Chinese， Wei Li， who has a high talent in the music field. His father is a businessman， and his mother is a housewife whose main work is urging Wei Li to study harder and harder. Wei Li could not bear the pressure at last. A month ago， he killed his mother. This is a tragedy. Chinese parents always educate their children to learn more knowledge to get high scores. However， they ignore the cultivation of affection such as moral education. In America， parents value not only their children’s academic knowledge but their process of psychology. Their children are optimistic and aspirant. Obviously， it is human education that is the foundation of family education.

Moreover， it is essential to turn \"one-sided\" education into \"all-round\" education in China. The aim of Chinese family education is to instill knowledge into children’ minds. They train a large number of children with high scores but low abilities. This misconception of education will make children’s development of quality unbalanced so that it cannot fit for this dynamic society. Comparatively， American parents pay more attention to train their children’s mental ability so that the children can face all kinds of setbacks， survive hard circumstances and combat problems independently. Taking an example. In a cold winter morning， American children get up to deliver newspapers while our children are still sleeping in the warm blankets. Many Chinese parents probably think that it is unacceptable， or even think that is \"cruel\" to children.

5 Conclusion

Based on the above arguments， the author draws a conclusion that education plays an indispensable part in molding children’s characters and cultivating their independent ability. Meanwhile， educational reform is becoming more and more urgent. Chinese or American education each has its own advantages. Apparently， the essay does not mean to deny American education or Chinese education. To make up for one's deficiency， one should learn from others' strong points， pick up good ideas from the others， and push forward the educational reform immediately. All in all， we have a clear opinion that it is essential to adopt some useful methods to improve Chinese family education system. If we can follow these changes， Chinese education will go to a rosy future. In the end， more all-round persons can make more contributions to our society.

References

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